Realm Wraith (46 page)

“How do I look, Mr. Mercer?” he asked, his voice thick with scorn.

“What have you done?” Rayne gasped.

“After you decided to disfigure me, I decided to improve my situation. So, I came here, to Azaznir’s realm.”

“This is Azaznir’s realm?” Rayne looked around at the horde of reapers. A crushing, oppressive heat enveloped and pressed down upon him.

“Of course. Didn’t you know? The reapers serve Azaznir, the flame lord. He made them his loyal minions countless eons ago, to use their strength as he wished.”

“You sold your soul to him, didn’t you?”

“I gave him information, which he found useful.”

“You told him?!” Rayne’s eyes flared, and he lurched forward, only to be restrained and held back by two other reapers.

“I did, indeed. Your friend will be pissed when he finds out. But it wasn’t Tomordred’s former mortality that interested my new god.”

“Your new—”

Gabriel’s head arched back, and a sizzling noise echoed from deep within his throat. The fortress trembled, shaking debris from the ceiling, spreading cracks along the wall. The glow in his eye brightened, and a greater light behind him contracted and focused on Rayne like a pupil.

“You,” an intense voice whispered.

Two skeletal hands made of ephemeral smoke rose through the ground on either side of Gabriel, and more smoke flowed up and through him, creeping along the walls, opening eyes brighter than miniature suns, their light engulfing the chamber like a white plague. But it was merely a shadow, just like before. Rayne realized why the voice sounded so familiar, though this was the first time he’d ever heard it speak English.

“Azaznir,” he breathed.

A voice, more substance than sound, flayed his still-tender flesh with a simple whisper. Rayne grasped his shoulders, but refused to give this unholy god the satisfaction of a scream.

“I remember you,” the demon god said. “How did you escape my chains? Weaklings can’t break the restraints of an Abyss Lord.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Rayne retorted. “What the hell is going on here?!”

“Mercer, you dumb piece of shit, don’t you get it?” Gabriel interrupted. Rayne could barely see him in the glare. “You’ve lost. I told Azaznir all about Tomordred’s little secret. And he’s chosen me to serve him.”

“I did not say you could speak,” Azaznir said.

“S-sorry, my lord.”

Charred hands reached from the light, scraping over Rayne’s chin. “You learned quite a secret, mortal. I was inspired by the actions of Tomordred’s master. To corrupt a world on a mass scale, and destroy it single handedly. I’ve shattered worlds with fire and meteors, but to corrupt the souls first, that is an idea I have not tried.”

“Gabriel.” Rayne went limp in the grip of the two reapers still holding him. “Please, please don’t tell me you’ve agreed to be his catalyst.”

“Aren’t you smart,” Gabriel mocked him. “No wonder you got away from that slobbering beast with your soul intact.”

“
You sold out our planet
?!” he screamed. Gabriel laughed.

“What does it matter? We’re both dead men, aren’t we? You won’t be around to witness the death of our world, and I will be the instigator. I’ll travel the world offering my god’s power to anyone who desires it. I’ll be the one who brings about the humanity’s annihilation in a fiery apocalypse. Because my god would not be crude enough to stoop to a flood.”

“You bastard! You sodding asshole!
I’ll kill you
!”

“Silence, mortal,” Azaznir said. “You will not interfere. I’ve learned all about you from my new catalyst. You think quite highly of yourself. You think you’ve somehow mastered my world. That ends. I make you one offer, to join Gabriel in servitude to a higher power.”

“I’d rather have my insides ripped out,” Rayne hissed, his hatred boiling inside him.

“Oh, so you think you’re a hero, do you? You think you’ll prove your character if you stand up to the darkness? You’re in Hell, Realm Wraith. You’ve sinned. You’re damned.” The claws raked across Rayne’s face, slicing his skin open. “You will spend eternity here one way or another. I can offer you power, and Nen’kai’s wretched little pet won’t ever hunt you here. I ask you one more time to serve me.”

Rayne spat, and glared up at the god. “I despise fire.”

A clawed finger pressed against his forehead, pushing deeper and deeper, drawing blood. Azaznir’s laugh boomed around him, as the Abyss Lord mocked him.

“Conviction to the end. So be it. Servant, away with you. Do not let me down.”

Gabriel pushed himself into Rayne’s blurred field of vision. “Yeah, that’s right, asshole. You’re here, and I’m gone. I can leave the Abyss any time I want, and wake up whenever I want. You’ll be dead before you even open your eyes this morning.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Why not? The rules don’t apply to me anymore, and you really fucking annoy me. You think I can go to jail for murder, when I have this power?”

“Did Azaznir take away your brain while he was at it, you tit?”

“Such a mouth. Enjoy your last night. While you’re here, in our citadel, I’ll be killing you in your bed. You’ll die, and your soul will be just like that stupid woman’s. And if Tomordred still wants to eat you after that, he’s free to.”

“You
wanker
!” Rayne strained, hoping to at least land one punch, but the reapers held him too tight.

Gabriel stepped back from Rayne, his spirit fading from sight. “It’s too bad I won’t get to see it happen, when your mind ceases to exist and you turn into a vapid, lost soul.”

“Wait!”

It was too late; Gabriel was gone. The demons dug their claws into Rayne’s arms, and the light continued to blind him, as Azaznir’s stare burned him from the outside.

“Such rage,” the god said. “You wish to fight me? Do you hate your state of existence so badly? Because I can end it for you.”

“I don’t care who you are! I won’t let you do this!”

“There’s nothing to be done. When my servant has killed your flesh, you’ll just be a mindless simpleton, hardly worth caring about. I may as well just toss your soul into that frozen wasteland for Tomordred to devour.” Rayne saw a flash of teeth, as if the horrid being grinned at him. “Even better; I should do away with that place entirely. That realm has been without a master for far too long. I’ve toyed with it before, but I think it’s time I made it a part of my world.”

“You can’t do that!”

Azaznir laughed again. “Nobody will care. They didn’t care when I got rid of its master, after all.”

Rayne stopped struggling against the reapers for a moment. “That was you?”

The light faded, and Rayne could finally see again, once the shadowy claws receded. He could still feel Azaznir’s stare even as he withdrew.

“I’ve wasted enough time,” he said. “But a word of warning, Realm Wraith. My new servant told me you have a child on Earth. He could make a fine catalyst, if the first one fails.”

“
No!
” Rayne screamed.

“If you do not want me to tear his soul to pieces, you will remain silent, and wait for death.”

“Stay away from Levi!” Rayne’s rage bubbled over, his eyes wide and mad as he pushed against the reapers. Azaznir did not answer, but he laughed one last time as the shadows receded into the ground, and the clawed hands dissolved into dust. He clenched his eyes shut, balled up his fists, infuriated by the demon god’s audacity. Hearing his son threatened turned his vision crimson, and Rayne understood, to his horror, that if he stood back and did nothing, Levi would be as doomed as anybody else on Earth.

“Let go of me!”

He whirled around, letting the cold around him grow to blinding intensity as it froze the hands that bound him solid. He pulled his arms free, shattering the frozen flesh and bone. The two reapers howled, and the rest of their kind closed in on Rayne. He knew just looking at them that he had no chance fighting all of them at once. There was a strange barrier here, something that dulled his senses, and he realized as he focused he could not warp away as he pleased. He was trapped like a rat, the many identical faces of death bearing down upon him.

With no other recourse, he bolted, darting in and through the demons that filled the room. Their smoke-like bodies had little substance, and he barreled through them before they could slice him with those silver-edged blades that lined their hands. But the further into the crowd he ran, the closer they came to catching him, anticipating his actions, slashing up his body. The sensation of blades cutting his flesh dragged up painful memories, though he could not recall any point in his life where he’d ever been cut with something so keenly sharp. The sands of his hourglass neared the bottom; they would overpower him soon.

A clawed hand grabbed his shoulder and lifted him away. The screaming reapers around him warped and melted into the ether, and the crushing heat was swapped out for a cold rushing wind. He stood on a mountaintop, away from the citadel now, one lone reaper standing beside him. Rayne knew, just from his movements, the familiar sneer, who had saved him in the chaos.

“I was wondering where you were,” he remarked.

“This makes the favor you owe me even bigger,” Darrigan leered, a playful expression on his skull-like features.

“You’d best come to collect soon. In a few hours, I won’t be able to do you any favors.”

“That’s a pity. I thought for sure you’d go right after Gabriel, and finish him off first.”

“Nothing would bring me greater pleasure right now, but until I wake up in the material world, my soul is stuck here.” Rayne sighed. “Even if I did stop him, Tomordred’s going to eat me for a snack. I let his secret get out.”

“You can worry about Tomordred later. For now, you’d best find a way to wake up.”

“How?” Rayne asked. “I’m just a Realm Wraith. Gabriel has the power of a demon god on his side; he’s free to do as he damn well pleases! I’m bound by the rules of this place.” He kicked at a rock on the ground, watching it bounce away.

Darrigan laughed at him. “You? Bound by rules? What rules?”

Rayne stared out over the cliff into the gaping chasm of the mountainside. “You didn’t just save me as a favor, did you? Why are you so interested in me?” He looked back at Darrigan. “I know you lied, about the fire, about seeing me as a child.”

“Fine, I lied. I knew you’d figure that out eventually. The truth is, I’ve been watching your soul for several lifetimes. We first met about fifteen hundred years ago.”

“Wait, what?”

“Now’s not the time for stories,” the demon sighed. “You have to go and wake up now, and stop Gabriel from being your world’s catalyst. Kill him before he kills you, and his soul will return here. He may wield Azaznir’s power, but he is not a demon yet. Destroy his physical body, and he will lose all awareness. Azaznir will have no more use for him then.”

“How do I wake up on my own?”

“You’ve done it before.”

“I have?” Rayne thought back, trying to remember when he’d ever instigated his own awakening. He remembered then, his first battle with Tomordred, when the demon had been just about to eat him. The memory became clearer, the same sensation of his body seizing and trapping him, just like when Darrigan had taken his soul away during the day. It was easy to remember, as he found the feeling incredibly unpleasant.

He called on that memory now, feeling out towards his physical form. He sensed it reaching for him, pulling him in. A shiver of disgust wormed down his spine, but there was no turning back now. Darrigan faded from sight, the Abyss melted away, and he was pulled out from the domain of nightmares, back into reality.

* * *

His eyes snapped open, and he stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom. He could hear rain falling outside his window again, a soft sound in an otherwise still household. Groaning, he rolled over and looked at the clock by the bed. Four in the morning. David would have left for work already, and Levi should be in bed, he rationalized. For a moment, he experienced a faint joy in realizing he no longer had to suffer as a prisoner, now free to leave the Abyss and wake up whenever he pleased. But that thought was short lived, as he remembered why he had awakened in the first place.

Rayne didn’t even have time to move to his chair. A noise echoed at the front door. The sound of a doorknob being rattled, checked, followed by faint pounding, as if someone were accessing just how solid it were. And then, to his surprise, the sound of clicking and a creak, a door being swung open.

“Oh, it’s you, mister,” a child’s voice chirped.

Levi?
Rayne thought. His son shouldn’t be up at this hour.

“Well, if it isn’t the little master,” Gabriel’s beastly tone made Rayne’s hair stand on end. “I need to speak with your father. It’s very urgent.”

Rayne fumbled in the dark for his chair, his heart racing. He couldn’t find it, and rolled over in bed to search the other side.

“Daddy’s asleep right now. I could wake him up for you,” he heard Levi say.

“Oh no, I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble. Just point me to his bedroom, I’ll wake him up.”